LEEDCo ready to begin demonstration project that will place wind turbines in Lake Erie

The Lake Erie Energy Development Corp. is ready to begin a demonstration project to develop five to nine wind turbines off the coast of Cleveland in Lake Erie.

LEEDCo's "Icebreaker" project has been awarded $4 million in U.S. Department of Energy funding through Feb. 15, 2014. Private partners have committed an additional $1 million in cost share for this portion of the project.

"In one year, we will provide the federal government with a strong plan to provide clean, affordable and reliable offshore wind power to the electric grid and Northeast Ohio customers," LEEDCo President Lorry Wagner said in a statement. "I am convinced that we are poised to become the first freshwater wind farm in North America, which will spawn a new wind power industry in Northeast Ohio."

LEEDCo is a regional non-profit corporation leading efforts to create an offshore wind energy industry in Northeast Ohio.

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The agency was founded in 2009 and members include Ashtabula, Cuyahoga, Lorain and Lake counties, city of Cleveland, The Cleveland Foundation and NorTech.

As a public-private partnership, the agency represents Northern Ohio's public interest in offshore wind and works to develop an initial 20 to 30 megawatt project in Lake Erie seven miles offshore Cleveland with a 1,000 MW target by 2020.

The Department of Energy will evaluate results of LEEDCo's demonstration project and the organization could be selected to receive an additional $46 million in funding during a four-year period.

To compete to win the next round of funding, LEEDCo aims to:

* Address critical technical objectives, including evaluating and selecting the optimal turbine foundation design; reviewing installation, operations and maintenance methodologies; researching the challenges and solutions for icing conditions; and assessing the technical and financial feasibility of the overall project.

Team members from around the world gathered in Cleveland recently to kick-off the project, discuss their approach and how they will collaborate on breakthrough technologies and materials.

"Think of Icebreaker in Lake Erie as the flagship of projects that could be installed in the Great Lakes, which has enormous offshore wind potential," said Walt Musial, manager, Offshore Wind and Ocean Power Systems at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory in Golden, Colo.